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Tuesday, 12 March 2013

X-Wing - After Action Report 1

Wowsers!

It's been over two weeks since I've posted here on Jerreth Esq, but I have been quite busy. The Missus' birthday followed shortly after my own, family came to visit, and several of my usual weekly games I was unable to attend or were cancelled, leaving me with a bit of a creative break. The Missus' and I are also starting to get stuff ready for when we move come May.

I must say the detail on the two large-sized ships is awesome, and all the new upgrade cards and rules really flush out the game. I've only had a chance to play a single 100-point skirmish with both of ships against each other. Here are the squads I fielded:

Concept:
What I was going with for the Imps wasn't a solid build, but more experimentation: I was intrigued by Krassis' ability to reroll 1 attack die when attacking with a secondary weapon, so I loaded him out with an assortment of secondary weapons. Proton Torpedoes for long range, Cluster Missiles for short, and an Ion Cannon for all ranges. I also wanted to try out the Proximity Mines, so I gave him the Engine Upgrade to maneuver into a good position to drop them. I threw in the Weapons Engineer so he could maintain up to two target locks for this torpedoes and missiles. I was originally going to equip him instead with a Gunner, so if he missed on a secondary weapon attack he'd still have a chance to do some damage, but the Gunner went to the Rebel squad. I filled out the rest of the squad with cheap TIEs, led by Dark Curse. I gave him the Stealth Device because I thought it'd pair well with his ability to make him even more difficult to hit (and to trump part of the YT-1300's concept strategy).

Results:
Mixed. The Imperials lost, though not too terribly. I realised I spent to much time using the Ion Cannon on the X-Wings (which was effective) and trying to maneuver them into flying into the Proximity Mine I had dropped. I almost made it work, but also essentially shot myself in the foot when I misjudged spacing and flew a TIE over it. (He only took 1 damage) The Prox Mine is a big gamble, and probably best suited for use with asteroids to limit maneuverability. Next time I might try the Seismic Charges and Heavy Laser Cannon and drop the Engine Upgrade and Ion Cannon. Also since I was so focused on the X-Wings, I never used my Weapons Engineer nor my Torpedoes/Missiles, which I should've been using on the YT-1300 because it's easy to hit and it's concept strategy was brutal. It wasn't a total loss, as the Firespray and TIEs managed to mop up the X-Wings before my last TIE fell to the YT. Still, lessons learned and I think I can get this guy to work if I change my priorities. Also my Stealth Dark Curse didn't even get a chance to work because a lucky roll of the dice coupled with Marksmanship made him the first fatality!

Concept:
I didn't really have much time to come up with a Rebel Squad that included the YT-1300 before we played, but I did come across this squad browsing the all squads created by users of Voidstate'sUnofficial Star Wars X-Wing Squad Builder and thought I'd give it a shot. [RPGers, I highly recommend checking out Voidstate's Roleplaying and Boardgame Stuff, he's got some great and interesting custom resources for games like CthulhuTech, Eclipse Phase, The One Ring, Savage Worlds, Spirit of the Century, Warhammer 40K Roleplay, etc.]

Results:
Very good for the Rebellion. Han's reroll ability paired with a possible second attack from the Gunner greatly increased the chance of scoring a damaging hit on a target each round. Committing his action to Marksmanship is much better investment than Focus or Target Lock, provided you can absorb all the damage you're likely to take having very little committed to defence. Here's where Chewbacca's "+2 HP" helps. All in all, seems to be a very effective squad.

I quite happy with this new expansion with its new ships, upgrades, and rules; it further increases the options for building interesting squads.